Israel carried out air strikes on the south of Lebanon’s capital Beirut that it said targeted Hezbollah’s headquarters, moments after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to keep fighting the militant group.

The strikes, heard across the city, sent huge clouds of smoke soaring above the densely populated south of Beirut, the main bastion of Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said the strike targeted “the central headquarters” of Hezbollah in the southern suburbs of the city.

The bombing came moments after Netanyahu concluded his address to UN General Assembly delegates in New York, at which he vowed to keep up strikes against Hezbollah and fight “until victory” against Hamas.

Hezbollah and Israel have been locked in a deadly exchange of cross-border fire since the group’s Palestinian ally, Hamas, attacked Israel on October 7.

Israel’s aerial bombardment of Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon has killed around 700 people this week alone, according to the health ministry, but a US-led bid for a ceasefire has failed to take hold.

“As long as Hezbollah chooses the path of war, Israel has no choice, and Israel has every right to remove this threat and return our citizens to their home safe,” Netanyahu told the UN General Assembly, adding that operations against the Iran-backed militant group will “continue until we meet our objectives.”

Nearly a year into the war with Hamas in Gaza, Israel shifted its focus to its northern front with Lebanon, with its wave of aerial bombardment sparking an exodus of around 118,000 people.

On Friday, Lebanon’s National News Agency said Israeli air strikes had intensified overnight, and that one strike had killed a family of nine in south Lebanon.

Hezbollah fired rockets into the northern Israeli city of Tiberias, saying it was responding to “savage” strikes on Lebanese towns and villages.

‘Deadliest in a generation’

“Everything is collapsing around us,” said Lebanese businessman Anis Rubeiz, 55.

“People are tired mentally… I don’t see (hope) on the horizon… or even a ray of light.”

The UN children’s agency condemned the violence, saying the attacks on Lebanon were killing children “at a frightening rate”.

“We are witnessing the deadliest period in Lebanon in a generation, and many express their fear that this is just the beginning,” the UN humanitarian coordinator in Lebanon, Imran Riza, said.

In Israel, too, many were weary of the violence.

“It is incredibly exhausting to be in this situation. We don’t really know what’s going to happen, there’s talk of a ground offensive or a major operation,” said Lital Shmuelovich, a physiotherapy student.

Netanyahu also addressed the war in Gaza, saying that Israel’s military would continue to fight Hamas until the Islamist movement was crushed.

“If Hamas stays in power, it will regroup… and attack Israel again and again and again… So Hamas has got to go,” Netanyahu said, vowing to fight the group until “total victory”.

Diplomats have said efforts to end the war in Gaza were key to halting the fighting in Lebanon and bringing the region back from the brink of all-out war.

But despite months of mediation efforts, a Gaza ceasefire remains elusive.

Hamas’s October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.

Of the 251 hostages seized by militants, 97 are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,534 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The UN has described the figures as reliable.

After the Hamas attack, the deadliest in Israel’s history, Netanyahu vowed to bring the hostages home and to crush Hamas.

This month, he said securing Israel’s border with Lebanon was also a war objective, to allow residents of northern Israel who have had to flee the area to return to their homes.

Hezbollah commander killed

For the fourth time in a week, Israel carried out a strike on Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold, killing Mohammed Srur, the head of Hezbollah’s drone unit.

Hezbollah held a funeral ceremony for Srur on Friday.

The Lebanon violence has raised fears of wider turmoil in the Middle East, with Iran-backed militants across the region vowing to keep up their fight with Israel.

On Thursday, the Israeli military said it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen.

The leader of Yemen’s Huthi rebels, Abdul Malik al-Huthi, said in a televised address Thursday that the Iran-backed group would “not hesitate to support Lebanon and Hezbollah”.

An Israeli air strike on Lebanon’s border with Syria killed five Syrian soldiers, according to state news agency SANA.

Iran is a key ally of Syria, where it has helped prop up President Bashar al-Assad since the start of the civil war in 2011.

Netanyahu also took aim at Iran in his UN General Assembly address, saying: “I have a message for the tyrants of Tehran. If you strike us, we will strike you.”

He added: “There is no place in Iran that the long arm of Israel cannot reach, and that’s true of the entire Middle East.”

Analysts say Iran will try to resist being dragged into the conflict but it is walking a tightrope trying to support Hezbollah without getting dragged into a full-blown war and playing into its enemy’s hands.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Himachal Pradesh Minister Vikramaditya Singh met Congress state in-charge Rajiv Shukla and general secretary in-charge organisation KC Venugopal in Delhi today, a day after the party distanced itself from his remarks that eateries in the state will now have to display the names of owners and staff.

Mr Singh, while speaking exclusively to NDTV, denied being summoned by the Congress leadership and stressed that his remarks had “no communal overtones”.

“I was not called by anybody. I am a loyal soldier of the party. Whenever I come to Delhi, I meet the leadership here and apprise them of the work that the organisation and the government are doing in Himachal. It’s a routine affair,” he said.

Earlier, Mr Shukla said that the matter sprang from the state assembly speaker forming a committee to designate specific areas for street vendors, including those selling food and other items.

“They will be given licences and regulated so that police do not harass them. The designated places will require identification such as Aadhaar cards and licences but there is no requirement for them to display a sign stating their name as the owner,” he said.

Vikramaditya Singh said that while people from all parts of the country are welcome in Himachal Pradesh, it is the state government’s duty to address the “apprehensions” of the people.

“People from all parts of the country and walks of life are welcome in Himachal Pradesh, from all religions, castes and regions. But as a state, it is our responsibility to maintain law and order. We have to address the apprehension of the people of the state,” the 34-year-old said.

Insisting that his remarks had no communal overtones, the Himachal urban development minister told NDTV, “It is our responsibility to have vending zones across the country with registration certificates, whether its Aadhaar card, GST number or anything else. So there’s no communal overtones to any of it. Every state does it for their own security,” Mr Singh said.

“I am standing my ground that the interest of the people of Himachal Pradesh is our top-most priority,” he added.

Mr Singh said on Thursday that the decision for eateries and their shops to display the names of owners – an order issued by Uttar Pradesh during the Kanwar Yatra earlier this year – has been taken to maintain the ‘internal security’ of the state.

Mr Singh said the decision was taken considering “apprehensions” expressed by several locals about the rising numbers of migrants in the state.

The state government, however, later said that no such decision had been taken after Mr Singh’s announcement drew flak.

Mr Singh’s remark presented a conundrum for his party as it had earlier vehemently opposed the “display nameplate” diktat for eateries on the route of Kanwar Yatra by BJP-led Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand governments.

Senior BJP leader and former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jairam Thakur criticised the state government led by Sukhvinder Sukhu for first ordering the implementation of the street vendor policy and then revoking it.

He claimed the rule was being opposed “because it is the (Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister) Yogi model”. “It is condemnable that the Sukhu government is withdrawing the action. This rule has been in place since the previous government. registration and various types of regulations, which were stopped by the Sukhu government as soon as it came to power.